Chapter 6, and Epilogue Summary and Analysis

While Americans celebrated their freedom, Indians braced for the inevitable land grab by Americans. The new American government, in debt because of the war, in fact depended on selling Indian land to settlers to fill their treasury. The result was more skirmishes and conflict in the 1780's and beyond. Many Americans advocated "civilizing" the Indians, and indeed many Indians assimilated into American culture. But many did not want to, preferring their own culture.

A half-Indian and half-Scottish man named Alexander McGillivray emerged as a spokesman for the Creek Indians in present-day Georgia and South Carolina. Like many southern tribes, the Creeks had allied themselves with Spain, who was now withdrawing from America. In a letter to a Spanish governor, McGillivray pleads with the Spanish crown to not speak for the Creek and cede lands to the Americans...